Choosing a Path

There are many ways to find information on the Internet. The most direct way is the URL, the Uniform Resource Locator. This is the "web address," the specific location of information on the World Wide Web. The URL for this page is http://www.thrall.org/searchingtheinternet/page4.htm

URLs are "case sensitive," meaning upper and lowercase letters (for example, "a" and "A") matter and, if typed incorrectly, will likely lead to a "404 - Page Not Found" error. As little as one letter incorrectly entered can prevent a web page from appearing. The "/" symbol is called a "forward slash" or simply "slash." Other punctuation symbols often occur within an URL.

Usually we do not know the URL of a web page, especially when we're looking for something we're not even sure is available on the web. In that case we use can use things such as web guides, directories, or search engines.

Web guides and directories contain hyperlinks to other web sites. For example, a health web guide contains links to other web sites having to do with health. Directories can contain links for many subject areas. Web guides save you from having to search for Middletown Thrall Library maintains a number of such guides at http://www.thrall.org/guides.